Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:
On behalf of the Georgetown Board of Directors, I would once again like to express our gratitude to Interim President Robert M. Groves and the senior leadership team as they lead the University forward following John J. DeGioia’s announcement that he was concluding his time as President to focus on his ongoing recovery. Jack modeled a legacy of service and positioned Georgetown for excellence in the years to come.
We now look to the important task of selecting Georgetown’s next President. I write to share that we have formed a Presidential search committee whose charge will be to identify a small number of exceptional and thoroughly vetted candidates, and to ensure that every member of the Georgetown community has an opportunity to give input with respect to the qualities that we should be seeking in Georgetown’s next President.
As we move forward, the Board of Directors has indicated that the position of the new President is to articulate and implement the University’s vision for excellence; to sustain the University’s strong Catholic and Jesuit identity in collaboration with Jesuit leaders; to foster a sense of community, shared purpose, and collaboration among the University’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni; and to ensure Georgetown continues its leadership in higher education on a national and global level, among other priorities. As I stated in my November 2024 letter, we intend to have a new President in place no later than July 1, 2026.
The search committee comprises directors of our Board as well as members of the faculty. The members of the committee are:
- Kevin Warren (B’84), Chair of the Search Committee
- Jeanne Ruesch (P’02, P’09), Vice Chair of the Search Committee
- Professor Paul Almeida, Ph.D., William R. Berkley Chair and Dean, McDonough School of Business
- W. Robert Berkley, Jr. (B’95)
- Mannone Butler (B’94, L’99)
- Professor Anupam Chander, J.D., Scott Ginsburg Professor of Law and Technology
- Suzanne Donohoe (C’92)
- Reverend Daniel Patrick L. Huang, S.J., Pontifical Gregorian University
- Professor Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Neuroscience
- Reverend Ronald Mercier, S.J., former provincial of the Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus
- Frank McCourt, Jr. (C’75, P’05)
- Professor Nicoletta Pireddu, Ph.D., Department of Italian and Faculty Director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative
As the search committee begins its work, it will announce several opportunities for community input, which will include listening sessions for faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as other mechanisms for input.
Service on the committee will require significant time and effort, and I am grateful to the members for their dedication to Georgetown and their willingness to take on this important responsibility.
The Board has retained the firm Isaacson, Miller to work with them to manage the search process. Isaacson, Miller has been involved in numerous recent and successful academic searches across higher education, including for several Jesuit Colleges and Universities, and is well positioned to help the committee in its work. Searches like this are complex and sensitive, and we expect to benefit greatly from their expertise, and specialized resources to generate a pool of outstanding candidates.
We have created a website where you can find information and materials related to the search. We will update the website with additional information as we move forward with the search process. Future messages will link to this website as the place of record for search news.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish you all a happy new year and again wish to thank the members of the Presidential search committee for the work they are about to do.
Sincerely,
Thomas A. Reynolds III (B’74)
Chair, Georgetown University Board of Directors